The Victoria, Shipley

After the very busy Fanny's Alehouse just across the road, with maybe 40 or more people drinking cask beer, this was a bit of a come down. There are four hand pumps, but no one else that I could see in the pub was drinking it, apart from our small pub research team. We took our beers into the quieter room, which has the feel of a games room or sports bar, and compared temperatures. Mine was coldest, possibly as low as six degrees, with others varying but not one was in the range we expect for well kept cask beers. This tells me that there had been quite a bit of time gone by since any of these had been poured, before we arrived. We had found the SALT place at the junction busy, with cask beers flying out, and we were to find the same at the Beehive along the road into Shipley. So three out of four real ale pubs in a half mile stretch were busy, this one was not.

An excellent job of breathing new life into a tired old pub. Sadly the wonderful but formidable landlady wasn’t working on my visit but her influence was apparent. A high quality, friendly pub with decent beer, six pulls of mostly local beers. Two bars, public and lounge although nowt to choose between them, both are nice.